Recovering from Adversity
by Kaisu
Summary: Matrix wakes from being frozen in the aftermath of a Mainframe disaster. He strives to return to the past and to AndrAIa, but the path will be hard and tedious. He makes allies and enemies on the way.
1. Default Chapter

CH 1

It was dark. It smelled too. It smelled like, like old. Matrix slowly and painfully opened

his eyes, had be been napping? He couldn't remember what second it was or when he had gone to

sleep, in fact, was it day or night? His body ached as he moved it, it felt like he hadn't moved

in a long time, and he was cold. He stretched his muscles before managing to sit himself up.

Eventually he did and he rubbed his head. Quickly he scanned the room he was in, it wasn't his,

or anything he recognized.

"AndrAIa?" he asked the room. But nothing stirred, nor echoed. He groaned as he got out of the

container he had been sleeping in. He examined it. _What is this_...he thought, _where am I at? _He

inspected the container with the glass lid and read the words "Cryogenic freezer" and then a

digital readout that said "0 days". _0 days_? He thought about it and he suddenly panicked. _I was _

_frozen? In THIS?_ He tried to search for windows, files, anything that would tell him how long he

had been asleep in the freezer, but the files and windows were not able to work, nor were the

files able to read because they would just crumble out of Matrix's hands as soon as he picked

them up. The room was in complete disarray, as if someone had been using this, laboratory, and

suddenly left without turning anything off or putting anything away. He felt a shiver of dismay

blanket him as he started to realize that everything he once knew, was destroyed.

He walked down a long corridor which was supposed to be lighted but nothing was on.

"Hello?" he said softly, his echo reverberated and came back to him in the sound of a long

murmured groan. He wrapped his hand around his gun and cautiously made his way to another

set of halls. He reached a door that led outside into the city of Mainframe and his jaw dropped

at the sight. Everything was gray and in shambles. His view was from Lost Angles which was

just as grey and dismal as the city. His eyes squinted and he choked, for the city he once knew to

be alive and happening, was now a dead, slum of abandoned buildings and rotting streets. He

fell to his knees and cried out, "AndrAIa! Bob! Dot!" and he yelled long into the air.

The city looked worse than it had when it had shut down after he and AndrAIa returned

from their search for Bob. This time there were no binomes or ones to greet him, or run away,

not even nulls. He dragged his feet, if he was going to find or do anything, the most obvious

place would be the Principal Office, and that's where he headed.

Matrix walked in and out of destroyed and shambled buildings searching for anything

that would move. He couldn't even find any nulls.

"Hello?" He shouted. But everything was so quiet, it made him shiver. "Hello?" He shouted

again, panicked. No, he thought, everything can't be gone, not everyone, not everything! He ran.

He ran towards the principal office. He had wondered why there wasn't a whole system

shutdown being that nothing was working and the city had no energy to run off of. His steps

took him down a road he knew once to be full of stores and shops, now diminished into dust and

broken walls. His eyes were lidded at the sight and he felt like dying. But as he walked past a

broken down building with only two walls barely standing, he saw a bright light. His eyes had to

adjust, but he was ecstatic to find something alive, perhaps.

He made his way to the light but discovered it wasn't a light at all, but a sprite, with

white skin, and white hair inside of a tube filled with liquid. It was a female, and her eyes were

closed. Matrix steadily walked towards the tube, with his hand clenched on his gun tightly. He

stopped in front of it and stared. He read a label that was only half readable on the base of the

tube that said "DRP sprite: do not remove unless emerg" and the rest was torn off. He observed

the label some more and the sprite fluttered her eyes open and looked down at him.

"I am DRP number 92, please state your inquiry" she said. Matrix gasped at the sudden noise as

he jumped backwards, tripping over a broken chair and into a pile of dust.

"You... What are you?" He boldly asked. The sprite blinked several times before answering.

"I am a Disaster Repair Plan sprite, I am interconnected through the entire system and am able to

access any database within for information." she spoke with a British accent.

Matrixgot to his feet and peered at her intently. "I...don't know... what's..."

"Going on?" she finished for him. He nodded.

"What happened here? Where is everyone..." Matrix inquired.

DRP closed her eyes and accessed stored information. "You are Enzo Matrix, guardian, you are

a resident here and last accessed any information 200 days ago"

"What?" Matrix screamed, "You mean... I've been frozen for 200 days!" DRP nodded.

"But why? I can't even remember what happened before I slept! Tell me!" He placed both hands

on the clear tube surrounding the sprite and breathed deeply. DRP closed her eyes again and a

whirlwind of information flashed into her mind.

"I cannot tell you." she said.

Matrix frowned and banged his fists against the tube, "Why not!" he yelled.

DRP looked annoyed, "Because my program did not run until after you were already frozen, I

have no memory of what happened before then."

Matrix hung his head, if this was the only creature alive in the system, and if she didn't even

know, then he would never find out what happened. DRP looked at him and thought about it a

little more.

"I...might be able to access logs, from when I was first programmed to run as a DRP sprite." she

said. Matrix looked up at her. "I can search for logs that might mention anything about you and

the freezer." She closed her eyes and lists were flashed in front of her eyes into her head quickly.

Matrix stayed quiet and still and three minutes later, DRP opened her eyes again, "Nothing." She

shook her head. Matrix sighed again and cast his eyes downward again.

"My friends, my family... what happened to them?" Matrix looked up at her again. "Tell me

what happened to AndrAIa!"

"AndrAIa..." DRP searched her database for a while, "AndrAIa, last accessed information 112

days ago...former command dot com of the system and game sprite, is this the AndrAIa you

want?" Matrix shook his head, "Yes! Where is she, what happened to her, was she frozen too? Is

she alive?" his eyes lit up, thinking maybe of the impossible.

She spoke slowly, "Game sprites are notable for their weak and vulnerable icons, and would

never last in a cryogenic freezer, therefore, if she had lived when you had last accessed

information, she would have long since passed away."

Matrix sat back on his haunches on the revealization of this news. AndrAIa was dead. She died

long ago, and he wondered if her life was the same after he was gone or if she changed upon his

disappearance.

"Did she know?" Matrix asked DRP, "Did she know where I was?"

"No" DRP said after a while, "nobody knew...would you like to see a stored image of your

friends?" she asked cautiously. Matrix arched his eyebrows and thought about it. Would he want

to see something he ever would again and remain in constant agony because of their absence? Or

would he be glad to see his friends and loves one more time, to remember.

"Show me." he said.

DRP opened a small hole in the base of the tube and with a click, an image was flashed

on the partial wall of the once building. Matrix watched and his eyes widened at the scene in

front of him.

---

"My fellow Mainframers!" a male red guardian sprite was saying on a stage in front of hundreds

of binomes and other sprites, "A glorious day this is, for we are celebrating a new age in

technology!" a big cheer spread across the crowd. "Honoring the new achievements of our civil

age is an opportunity to move towards the tomorrow of Mainframe! You have heard, and now

you will see! Behold!" and the guardian speaker flung his hand backwards and there opened a

curtain, behind the curtain was various technical objects and contraptions. Among them was

DRP in her tube. The crowd cheered on, and once it died down, the guardian spoke again, "This

year, to honor the scientists and computer technologists is, your beloved dot com, AndrAIa!" An

even bigger cheer spread through the crowd and from the corner of the stage, an old and aged

AndrAIa slowly made her way to the microphone. She must have been close to 90 or 100 at this

point, and her age weighed her down. The wrinkles on her face showed utter joy and tired at the

same time, her hands were strong yet fragile and her eyes were full of knowledge.

"Mainframers, welcome" she said with a wide smile and tired voice. "I'd like to award those

scientists who made this technology a living dream." She called each scientists name, and the

title of the technology they created or the contraption they built and one by one, gave them an

award and a round of applause.

"This never could have taken place without the help and building blocks that were made from

the very beginning by Guardian 452, and Dot Matrix, former dot com of the system who both

have so recently passed away." AndrAIa closed her eyes. "Thank you to all who have taken part

in this celebration today, may the net be kind to you." And she was done.

---

"Turn it off!" Matrix sobbed, "Please, stop the video!" he sniffed into his hands and DRP shut

the feed off.

"This system has been in disrepair for 120 days now, I am under a time-lock while in this tube so

I never age, and I never come out..." DRP hung her head. Matrix rubbed some tears from his

eyes and then shook his head.. "AndrAIa," he whispered, "What of the city? What happened?"

Matrix softly asked.

"The city, there was an infection, a virus infection, which infected the whole city..." she closed

her eyes again.

"And?" Matrix replied, "then what?" DRP squinted her eyes and tried to access the

information deeper.

"The... the virus...was a HTTPD virus, it..."

"Wait wait, first of all what's an HTTPD virus?" Matrix asked. DRP opened her eyes and

looked to Matrix.

"Guardian, I would expect you to know that.." she said, tilting her head to the side.

"Excuse me, I'm only a first class guardian renegade who goes against my code." he said

sarcastically. She peered at him after that, floating in her tube then shook her head and

continued.

"The HTTPD virus is a stealthy invisible hacking program that waits for incoming server

transmissions and intersects them, causing misinterpretation and mixing of messages that slowly

and eventually cause the downfall of a whole system." DRP finished, "and that's what

happened."

To Be Continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Matrix lowered his eyes, "everything, everything I ever knew... is gone." He slid down the wall he

was leaning against and rested his head in his hands. He had been gone, what if he had been

there, could he have saved the city? No, he couldn't have, if his friends and family were so aged

as he had seen when DRP relayed the images to him, he knew he would have never lived long

enough to even see the end of Mainframe. At least his loved ones didn't have to suffer through

that.

The sky became dark and then a voice that was recognizable said,

"WARNING:INCOMING GAME. WARNING: INCOMING GAME" Matrix jerked his head up

only to see the game cube appearing directly above him. He was too sad to get up and run, but he

didn't have any energy to fight, which meant deletion. DRP's eyes strained upward and she

smiled. Matrix got to his feet and looked at DRP with intense eyes.

"You can play games?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I have nothing to live for anymore, I might as well accept fate and deletion." he said.

"I do." DRP said, "it's my programming, I'm a disaster recovery plan sprite... and I plan to know

how to recover this disaster.." Matrix looked at her and couldn't understand how she could stay

here in the nothingness of Mainframe and still seem to exist.

"Why don't you travel out of here? Reboot into game sprite mode and travel with the game?" Matrix said.

"That option cannot be done anymore, in the 200 days you were gone, the user found a way to

block all incoming sprites and uploads that attach themselves to games, that was 80 days ago."

Matrix sighed and kicked the wall, "Damn!" he said.

The gamecube lowered and landed on top of them.

Matrix took a look at his surroundings. The game was taking place on a sandy beach on a sunny

day and the waves in the ocean were wildly crashing. He turned around and saw DRP without her

tube.

"What happened to your tube?" he asked.

"The system lock doesn't apply to games." She was free to walk, no wonder she had been

smiling. She clicked her icon which was located on her upper right collarbone and said

"Reboot!" Immediately she was rebooted into a full black wetsuit and a surfboard appeared in her

hands. Her skin turned dark tan and her hair became sun-bleach orange. She picked up the

surfboard with both hands and started walking to where a big crowd of people were around a big

stage. She stopped and turned to look at Matrix.

"If you don't have anything to live for, there's sharks and a wicked riptide out there in the ocean,

I'm not giving up on myself though..." she still looked at him while he sighed and rubbed his eyes

with his hands.

"Reboot" he said as he clicked his icon, and he also rebooted into a wetsuit with a longboard. His

skin turned dark green and his hair became slightly lighter at the tips. DRP cocked her head and

blinked.

"Do you wish to live all of the sudden? With nothing but a destroyed world you used to know?"

she said sadly.

"Some thing my friends and I never gave up in was hope...and I'm hoping my instinct right now,

will lead me somewhere..." he walked towards her and they walked together to the stage.

A tan surfer was speaking at the microphone, "Ohhkay dudes! Now, the first rule you

must know is..."

"The user has never played this game before, he's listening to the how-to-play rules, it'll be a

while" DRP said. Matrix nodded and they listened to the surfer drone on about tips and strategies

and the rules of the game, it lasted a couple seconds and then it was time to get into the water.

"Ok the way I see it, the way to get the most points is to make the major moves on the

waves...cutbacks, grabs and airs get the most points, and combos help." Matrix and DRP were

herding to the water along with the other surfers, among them was the user in a black wetsuit

with bleached hair and a blue and red longboard. The first round was easy, it knocked off most of

the game sprites and eventually left the user, Matrix and DRP. The game was time-based,

whoever had the most points without wiping out, won. The user had been making moves but

none as nearly complex as Matrix or DRP's due to his lacking of experience.

They were nearly on their 22nd round when time was finally about to run out. Matrix

caught a wave inward and thought while he rode it. He wondered if this was a good idea, to stay

in Mainframe, the dead, lifeless city when he could just as easily wipe out and get eaten by a

shark and never think about it ever again. He did a snapturn and his eyes caught DRP's as she

was heading outward again to catch a wave. Her eyes looked so hopeful and so intuitive he had

to snap his head away to keep from getting distracted by hope. But then, why shouldn't he? He'd

been through bad things, but he had AndrAIa by his side, and now he didn't. How could he really

go on without her. Matrix wildly flung himself back into the ocean again after he had rode the

wave in and paddled out again, having a new edge and push. Because she wouldn't give up, he

thought. She wouldn't want to see him giving up. And the game ended, with Matrix having 489

points, DRP taking in 364 points, and the user having 122 points. The game cube lifted and was

gone. Matrix was in his normal attire again and DRP's tube appeared around her and she was

immobilized again.

Matrix sat down and his stomach gurgled. "If there were some way... to get the ports

working... don't you think we could leave.. To maybe even get more help?" Matrix asked. DRP

struggled for an answer but shook her head, "Access denied" she said.

"What?" Matrix asked.

"I cannot tell you of the interworkings of the system because you are not authorized." she said.

"Well... how do I get authorization?"

"You must be 3rd level guardian or higher, or ..." she thought for a moment. "Upload the

information stored in the system into my own database and break me out of this tube." Matrix

frowned and got up.

"You mean... you HAVE the information to rebuild the ports?"

"Yes, I am a Disaster Repair Planner, I am not able to repair items though while in this tube, only

relay them to authorized official, that's the program..."

"Well, I guess that means we have to bust that tube. Hold still." Matrix pulled out his gun and

shot it towards the tube's exterior, but it was quickly deflected and rebounded into the air.

"My tube can't be broken by normal destructive mechanics, it needs a guardian's keytool or a

gatekeeper's password. Use your keytool, guardian Matrix." She floated more swiftly in the

liquid.

"You're right! Gl.." but Matrix forgot he didn't have Glitch anymore. "Damn," he said out loud.

"Bob took Glitch from me... it was his keytool to begin with anyway."

"I think... I think I can do a search for keytools in this system, many guardians lived here before

the system died. They hold an efficient amount of energy even if they completely die, they still

pull energy from surrounding air, movement, anything they can find. Let me check." She

scanned the system for any sign of a guardian keytool, by energy. While she searched, Matrix

took a walk to the edge of the sector he was in and found a broken down bridge into the energy

sea. He carefully made his way down to it and he sipped energy from the sea which gave him a

bit more power to go on. The sea was dirty and filthy but he had no other choice. When he

returned to DRP she had news for him.

"I found a keytool!" she said brightly, "it is located in the 5th wing in the Principal Office on the

second floor in room 202, a meeting room."

"I know where that is..." Matrix thought back to the time when he Dot, Bob and Phong had

discussed something about opening ports to the net way back when he was just 01. Matrix lifted

with his strong muscles, the tube onto his shoulder, with liquid swishing back and forth.

"Ah!" DRP gasped, "Where are we going?" some cords snapped from the base of the tube from

the wall as Matrix and DRP made their way to the P.O.

"The Principal Office, where else?"

To Be Continued...


	3. Chapter 3

Ch 3

"So how can I break you out of this tube when it clearly says I'm not supposed to?" Matrix shouted as he ran across the broken city to the very center of it.

"As a disaster repair plan sprite, I gauge the intensity of disasters and calculate the best and most efficient plans to repair them." DRP shouted back as a few walls crumbled due to the reverberation of their voices. Matrix dodged falling debris.

"So?"

"So…my plan requires me to leave the tube since you are not authorized to access system information. I conclude that the probability of another person coming into this system with or without the authorization to access the system's information is less than slim. Excuse the forwardness but I have to use you, my plan needs you to help me. And you need me to help you as well."

"Don't worry, I'm up for it. I have to find a way to get back to my old time, and AndrAIa, or else… I'll have nothing to live for. I'm counting on you DRP, problem is, how will we do it?"

"Well, all communication I get is through my program, which enables me to receive incoming information that is relayed through the internet and web."

"That means there's still connections to other systems!" Matrix gasped, "That must mean the ports to the net are still working!… right?"

DRP frowned, "Yes but they are in bad shape. Days of decay will take it's toll, and components that have not kept up with upgrades, decay. While other systems have upgraded their components and machinery, Mainframe has been physically offline for 120 days and has not upgraded."

"But I thought you just said that we were receiving transmissions from other systems."

"That is part of the information you don't have access to."

"Oh, so we may have some sort of secret channels that transmit information in and out of the system without the need for ports?"

"I run wireless." DRP smirked. "But I'm afraid that's all I can tell you. While I can upgrade myself, I can't upgrade the rest of the system, unforutnatly." DRP's body swished with the liquid as Matrix hauled himself over a ledge and came to a stop at the bridge that went across the long valley to the Principal Office. He looked at the too-familiar bridge that had become old and dull and looked as if it would crumble beneath his heavy feet.

"This looks pretty unstable." Matrix said looking it over, "Maybe if I had a way of testing it, or, wait, do **you** have a way of testing it?" Matrix set the tube down, liquid sloshing inside.

"Let me check." DRP's face blanked as she went through her recently updated information about the system. "The bridge has been constructed well, it was last used 120 days ago, and it's rate of decay is less than that of the temporary buildings we've been past, probably because it's part of the PO, and PO's require a lot of construction calculations and support because…well..because they are PO's of course." DRP looked at the bridge, "I think it's good for one trip across."

"Just one! What if we need to go the other way?"

"I'm good at using the facts that I have stored, I'm afraid I'm not equipped to calculate on a supposition."

Matrix frowned, "You mean guess? Yeah… well… no one is 100 percent good at guessing, so, well…" Matrix hesitated, "If you think this is the plan… then let's do it!" Matrix picked up the tube and started across the bridge. His walk turned into a jog and by the time he realized that the bridge was crumbling behind him, his jog turned into a sprint. "Oh shit!" he yelled.

"Better hurry guardian! The bridge is disintegrating behind you, fast!"

"I know!" Matrix sped up as much as he could and when he was ¾ way across the bridge, he hauled DRP across the rest of it and he jumped just as his feet were about to slip down into bridge dust. He landed just on the other side only a digit-length away from the edge. He fell forward and breathed his adrenaline away.

DRP's tube layed on its side, while still rolling to a stop. Matrix got up and walked towards it and put a foot out to conclude its spin. "Damn that was not fun…and being in time-lock for 200 days doesn't help my stamina either." Matrix picked up the tube and towed it over his shoulder and he continued walking to the PO meeting room.

As they arrived in the meeting room, Matrix set the tube down and studied the remains of it. The room was not in as bad of shape as the other places he had seen. The air was a little clearer and the dust was not piled as high.

"I rememeber this room… this is where Phong brought us in to talk to us about stuff." He kicked a broken chair leg, "I would talk to Bob about being a guardian when I was young, talk to Dot about commands and protocols, and to Phong about whatever weird thing he had on his mind about lecturing me about" he chuckled, "Even when I came back from game-hopping he would lecture me." Matrix did a slow 360 in place and nodded. "I guess ya really never lose those memories …"

DRP nodded, "I am programmed to rememeber everything, but they are nothing like your memories. All my memories come from files and…," she hesitated "…observation." Her hands came up and rested on the interior of her tube, "never interactively." Just then her face became saddened. "The only flaw I have is that I was made to be a sprite that ran this program, and not just a program." She sighed into the liquid of her tube, a few bubbles swirled up. Matrix looked at her gentle reaction and frowned.

"So where's the keytool? I think it's sick that they locked you in there! Who thought of such a ridiculous idea!" Matrix fumed and stomped around the room, filling the air with small wisps of dust and debris.

"Far right corner from where you are, it's energy is very faint." DRP replied. Matrix walked to where DRP specified and looked down, scanning the floor for anything relavent.

"I don't see anything, there's nothing on the floor over here but dust!" But then Matrix's eye traveled to a leg of a tall display table. He followed the leg up to where a platform lay and on that platform was a dust-covered glass enclosure. He picked it up and gently blew away the dust and wiped away the rest of it with his massive hand. "It's…it's the keytool!" Matrix exclaimed softly, "why would this be here?.. Is it…on display?" Matrix turned the container over and over again where the keytool seemed to float in the center of it.

"It is…" DRP closed her eyes again and reopened them, "Guardian 618's keytool. He was a 5th class ranking guardian who resided in Mainframe for a time period of 23 days and in that time period he did many things to help the system. He first…" Matrix tapped on her glass.

"I get it, he was famous and they wanted to commemorate his victories and rememeber him yadda yadda, whatever." Matrix threw the container down and it shattered into tiny pieces on the floor that clinked and clattered loudly. He picked up the keytool and rubbed it against his chest to clean it off and then he looked at it closely. His eyes met with a blinking censor on the top of the tool. The censor suddenly let out a laser that quickly flashed into Matrix's eyes. Matrix jumped and blinked several times and his brows furrowed when he saw what appeared on the keytool's screen.

GUARDIAN 596-Enzo Matrix: ACCESSING DATABASE 

…..

….

**KEYTOOL NAME: Cray**

**LAST KEYTOOL ENTRY: 23.4.084.2**

**LAST KEYTOOL USE: 23.4.083.1**

**used by**

**GUARDIAN 618-Psion**

**Warning energy low**

The keytool blinked several times. Matrix turned to DRP, "It's low on energy, what do we do?"

"Plug it into the base of my container, I have several plugs that may fit its input." A cove slid open in the base of the tube while she talked and displayed an array of different types of cords and plugs. Matrix leaned down to choose one. "I guess I'm doing this on a simple trial and error basis…" But a plug extended past the other ones as he spoke.

"No, it's this one, use it." DRP said and watched Matrix take the end of the cord and plug it into the keytool. Matrix set it down as it took in energy, "How long is this going to take?" He asked.

"A nano or so…" DRP replied.

Matrix nodded, "Ok, because I think we really need to talk about our next plan of action when we get you out of there."…

To Be Continued...


End file.
